She was faintly aware of soft warmth curled against her and the pale light showing under the crack in the door. It was dark now and she blinked, stretching. Tina then felt two paws lightly kneeding against her hip before she realized that the furry thing pressed into her body was a cat....Idgie.
The private detective had practically fallen asleep before she even slipped under the covers of the incredibly soft, warm bed. The flannel sheets still held the gentle scent of a woman who had occupied them hours before, a woman who had been sleeping deeply when Tina had called early this morning, a woman who had come to her proverbial rescue, and a woman who might be risking her life right now harboring her in this safe bed.
Mariel.
Sucking in a deep breath, Tina Amphipoli reached down and let her fingers find Idgie's soft fur as she turned her head to check the time. She had been asleep for eight hours, dead to the world since the young scientist had outfitted her with a pair of cutoff sweats and a large long-sleeved t-shirt and sent her off to bed. Mariel had insisted on covering the wound on Tina's side with a light gauze bandage lightly covered with zinc bacitracin. The same throbbing pain that accompanied her total exhaustion was there and it still hurt.
There were quite a few things that hurt, actually. The most painful by far, though, was what she had to do months before and what she had lost in the process. It was so much easier when she was young, playing in the summer sun with her brother. As carefree as she had been back then, there had always been stable rules she was expected to live by: home for dinner, toys picked up before bed, homework after school, play nice, share. Unfortunately, that had all changed when she was 13, her dad left her mother, taking most of their money and leaving Tina and her brother, Lucas, bewildered and confused. They never saw him again. And that's when all the rules changed.
She started to learn that good and bad were relative terms depending on one's needs. Life had gotten harder and harder when there was less and less structure. Her mother worked two jobs to make what little money they had so Tina and her brother rarely saw her. She learned the rules of the street more by necessity than by choice. Simply put, might made right in Detroit. Tina became cold and hard in response as a matter of survival. Over the years, this had been tempered by maturity, experience, perspective, and occasionally, love. However, when the rubber hit the road, the detective could call upon this side of her when circumstances dictated.
Certainly, circumstances had dictated that Tina Amphipoli make certain choices these past months and she wondered if she would regret those choices in the end. Right now, there were a number of loose ends that she would have to take care of before she could let her guard down. In fact, there were many things Tina would have to take care of before she could ever explain why she did what she did to the woman who had been on her mind every day since she had left. Tina wasn't sure Mariel would be as forgiving when she learned the truth.
Tina rolled on her side, the one that wasn't throbbing with pain and pulled the flannel around her head. Even in the safety of Mariel's bed, the detective could not shut out the images that flooded her vision. Pressing her hands to her eyes, she took deep breaths until everything faded to black.
"Hey...nah, just trying to finish a report..."
Tina listened to the one-sided conversation, curious about anything having to do with the woman she had partnered with months before and with whom she had spent one glorious night.
"Yeah yeah, and I'd lose my job..."
She could hear Mariel laugh lightly and she tried to remember how her face looked when she laughed. She had spent many nights trying to remember just that sight. When the FBI agent had picked her up at the airport and taken her back, she had very little time to study how the blond looked, how she was doing. She had simply been grateful and exhausted and glad to be back out of hell.
"About tonight...I'm going to have to take a raincheck, I'm sorry, Mark.....I know, I know, something came up that I've got to take care of..."
Tina sat up gently and stared at the filtering light coming from under the bedroom door. Idgie crawled up into her lap and she picked up the soft cat, listening to the purr and the conversation. Mark.
"No, I promise...what about next weekend? Okay...sounds good..."
Easing up from the bed, Tina pulled back the curtains on the window by the nightstand and glanced outside. Snow was still falling hard against the streetlights and everything was covered in inches. Central was empty and dark and the cars parked on it were shrouded in silence and white. Mariel's voice drifted softly under the door.
"You too...bye"
Tina heard the phone receiver click off and she remained at the window. There was a sense of desolation in the January winter outside and it mirrored what was inside. She could tell her feelings were right at the edge and if she thought about how much she might have lost because of her choices, it was painful. In fact, she'd rather be numb than touch what she was feeling so decided not to think about it. For now.
"Hey there..."
Tina nodded with a small smile before Idgie squirmed in her arms, wanting to be let down.
"Did the phone wake you?"
The private detective shrugged as she leaned against the wall near Mariel's desk, her eyes shifting from the young doctor's face to the floor before she answered.
"No, it was alright..."
Tina watched as Mariel stood, flinching back as the FBI agent moved towards her. Holding up her hand, Tina interrupted Mariel's movement.
"Look, I should go. You probably have things you need to do..."
Mariel sighed. Taking off her glasses, the young doctor ran a hand through her hair before she spoke softly.
"So you're going to leave again?"
Tina knew it was only a matter of time before Mariel would ask for an explanation, an explanation the private investigator simply did not have, at least not a simple, clean one. How could she answer that without betraying what she was feeling right now? Clearing her throat, Tina replied.
"That's not really fair, Mariel."
The phone rang a shrill interruption to both their words and their thoughts. Tina rubbed her jaw as she watched Mariel pick up the cordless phone and click it on, her voice a little tight and strained.
"Hello?"
The scientist leaned her hip against the desk as she cradled the phone, catching Tina's eye as she spoke.
"Hey Eph, what's up?"
Mariel listened intently, before her brows creased together and then shot up in a look of surprise, her voice communicating the same sentiment.
"What? Oh my god...you're kidding!?"
Tina looked at Mariel, catching the worried eyes of the young doctor. From the sound of it, this was not good news and Tina watched her face with interest, seeing it change before her eyes as Mariel listened to her FBI supervisor at the Bureau, Agent Amy Ephran, on the other end of the line. In the forensic psychologist's line of work, these kinds of calls were routine, but Tina could tell this wasn't routine to Mariel, whatever was being said.
"No no...I haven't heard from her in months..."
At this, the scientist's voice was hushed as she glanced at the investigator before looking down at her desk. Her hand went to her head and her eyes returned to Tina's in horror. The detective moved closer, sensing something was very wrong now.
"Oh god..."
These words were whispered, quiet and somber. Tina could see Mariel swallow before the young doctor closed her eyes and finished her phone call.
"I'll meet you over there...bye."
With that, Mariel clicked off the phone and set it down before she looked up at Tina. Instinctively, the detective moved closer, knowing that the expression on the scientist's face was a sign of something serious, something that was no doubt trouble. Tina let the obvious question fall from her lips.
"What's wrong?"
Mariel was quiet for a moment before she took a deep breath and let her eyes find the detectives. Her words drifted between them, lingering in the space they shared before imprinting on Tina's brain and memory.
"Your apartment was just torched and you were in it..."